Observation/Reflection #1: Starting From the Beginning During this observation, focus on how class begins. Where is your CT before class begins? What is he or she doing? Using the clock on the wall, determine when your CT establishes order and begins class. How did she/he start their lesson? How is homework from the previous night reviewed/collected/assessed? How does your CT engage students during the opening of the lesson? Is the approach your CT used during this lesson consistent with what you know about how students learn?
As the students entered the classroom my CT was walking around getting last minute things in order. She follows a very specific routine for all her classes. As they walk in they are talking, finding their seats, and taking out what they need for class. My CT says nothing about the talking or laughing etc. When the bell rings she closes the classroom door. She has a clip board on the outside of the door with instructions to those students who come in late. They are to sign the clip board, which means they have lunch detention the following day, and fill in a pass before she allows them to enter the room. She doesn’t make a big deal about it and all the students know the routine, when the bell rings you hear them all asking if they can be the one to close the door.
After the bell rings the students are already getting their homework out to be collected. While they are waiting for the homework to be collected they are to write the homework in their agendas and answer the journal question that is on the board. She does remind them, even though it is written on the board what it is they have to do. Once the homework is collected she goes around stamping their agendas to make sure they have written down their homework for that day. While they put their agendas away and finish up their journal responses she silently takes attendance. This start of class routine takes 10 min. The next 13min are spent answering questions regarding the homework and going over different ways to study vocabulary.
She starts the lesson by saying they are going to continue to work on their lab reports and asks a student to pass out the “lab-pholio’s”. She then starts calling out numbers so students can retrieve their assigned computers in an orderly fashion. Once all the students have their computers she shows them how to get on the class website and introduces them to different studying “games” that are available on it and goes through a few of them with the class. She then has them open their saved documents and starts systematically going through what to type, if it needs to be bolded, how to make it bold, etc. I think by incorporating the use of technology in the creation of a lab report helps keep the students interest better than having them just write it up. Also by going over the everything step by step helps ensure that the students know how to do what she is asking them to do when for future reports they will be on their own. As students begin to finish she tells them they can go on the class website and check out the study stack games while other students are finishing up. She takes into account that doing everything step by step will take longer and some students are not going to need such detailed instruction and will finish beforehand. To compensate for this she directed their attention to the study stack games that she had previously introduced in order to maintain on task behavior and avoid disruptive behavior.
As the students entered the classroom my CT was walking around getting last minute things in order. She follows a very specific routine for all her classes. As they walk in they are talking, finding their seats, and taking out what they need for class. My CT says nothing about the talking or laughing etc. When the bell rings she closes the classroom door. She has a clip board on the outside of the door with instructions to those students who come in late. They are to sign the clip board, which means they have lunch detention the following day, and fill in a pass before she allows them to enter the room. She doesn’t make a big deal about it and all the students know the routine, when the bell rings you hear them all asking if they can be the one to close the door.
After the bell rings the students are already getting their homework out to be collected. While they are waiting for the homework to be collected they are to write the homework in their agendas and answer the journal question that is on the board. She does remind them, even though it is written on the board what it is they have to do. Once the homework is collected she goes around stamping their agendas to make sure they have written down their homework for that day. While they put their agendas away and finish up their journal responses she silently takes attendance. This start of class routine takes 10 min. The next 13min are spent answering questions regarding the homework and going over different ways to study vocabulary.
She starts the lesson by saying they are going to continue to work on their lab reports and asks a student to pass out the “lab-pholio’s”. She then starts calling out numbers so students can retrieve their assigned computers in an orderly fashion. Once all the students have their computers she shows them how to get on the class website and introduces them to different studying “games” that are available on it and goes through a few of them with the class. She then has them open their saved documents and starts systematically going through what to type, if it needs to be bolded, how to make it bold, etc. I think by incorporating the use of technology in the creation of a lab report helps keep the students interest better than having them just write it up. Also by going over the everything step by step helps ensure that the students know how to do what she is asking them to do when for future reports they will be on their own. As students begin to finish she tells them they can go on the class website and check out the study stack games while other students are finishing up. She takes into account that doing everything step by step will take longer and some students are not going to need such detailed instruction and will finish beforehand. To compensate for this she directed their attention to the study stack games that she had previously introduced in order to maintain on task behavior and avoid disruptive behavior.